1 00:00:00,706 --> 00:00:03,706 ♪ [music] ♪ 2 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:15,230 Hi, my name's Paul Lomax, and I'm the Head of Genomics at SPT Labtech. 3 00:00:15,230 --> 00:00:17,330 We're really excited to be showing firefly. 4 00:00:17,330 --> 00:00:20,580 It's a very compact system, and it's got a lot of capability 5 00:00:20,580 --> 00:00:22,600 within that compact footprint. 6 00:00:22,600 --> 00:00:27,110 So, it's got a pipetting system for 384, 96-well plates. 7 00:00:27,110 --> 00:00:32,889 It's also got a non-contact dispensing system, and it's very well-set-up for genomics applications, 8 00:00:32,889 --> 00:00:35,029 and in particular, NGS library prep. 9 00:00:35,029 --> 00:00:39,449 So, we're finding customers don't have space in their labs, they want automation, 10 00:00:39,449 --> 00:00:43,009 and this is really a good fit for those customers. 11 00:00:43,009 --> 00:00:50,389 Firefly has a 384-well pipetting head that can be used for 384, 96, and also columns. 12 00:00:50,389 --> 00:00:55,559 So, you can do partial plates in 96-well plates or in 384-well plates. 13 00:00:55,559 --> 00:00:58,554 It's good for mixing, it's good for things like bead cleanups. 14 00:00:58,554 --> 00:01:04,301 It also has a gripper system incorporated, so you can move plates on and off magnets, so, 15 00:01:04,301 --> 00:01:05,741 great for bead cleanups. 16 00:01:05,741 --> 00:01:09,131 It also has a non-contact dispensing system. 17 00:01:09,131 --> 00:01:12,781 And that's great for dispensing kind of one-to-many reagents. 18 00:01:12,781 --> 00:01:18,151 So, a single reagent that you want to put across all wells, so that could be things like ethanol, buffers, 19 00:01:18,151 --> 00:01:20,391 enzymes, bead mix. 20 00:01:20,391 --> 00:01:22,221 It's great for all of those things. 21 00:01:22,221 --> 00:01:27,231 And because it's non-contact, you can use a single syringe for all those dispenses. 22 00:01:27,231 --> 00:01:29,461 So it's quite economical. 23 00:01:29,461 --> 00:01:34,937 It's also really great in producing dead volumes, so it's a great combination on a single instrument, 24 00:01:34,937 --> 00:01:37,697 to have both that pipetting and dispensing capability. 25 00:01:37,697 --> 00:01:43,227 And then on top of that, we've also got incubation and shaking on the system. 26 00:01:43,227 --> 00:01:47,607 So, there really is an awful lot of capability on a really small footprint. 27 00:01:47,607 --> 00:01:51,957 The firefly is predominantly targeted for genomics applications at the moment. 28 00:01:51,957 --> 00:01:57,177 In the future, we will kind of start to diversify a little bit more, because it is a general 29 00:01:57,177 --> 00:02:02,375 liquid handler, but what we're seeing in genomics is that with the cost of sequencing coming down, 30 00:02:02,375 --> 00:02:05,255 that's really driving and increasing throughput. 31 00:02:05,255 --> 00:02:09,925 So, we're seeing a lot of customers who are working manually at the moment now thinking about moving 32 00:02:09,925 --> 00:02:12,375 to automation, and the firefly is a great fit for them. 33 00:02:12,375 --> 00:02:15,525 It's really easy to use, and it's got great capabilities, 34 00:02:15,525 --> 00:02:21,155 and enables them to actually move from manual and lower throughputs to higher throughputs. 35 00:02:21,155 --> 00:02:27,465 We're also seeing customers who've already got automation wanting to add to their automation fleet, 36 00:02:27,465 --> 00:02:31,234 and they're often struggling for space, and it's a really compact unit, 37 00:02:31,234 --> 00:02:36,234 so it's something they can generally find a space for in the lab, and it brings them a lot of capability. 38 00:02:36,234 --> 00:02:41,524 So, going forward, you know, we've been shipping units for a little while now, 39 00:02:41,524 --> 00:02:44,694 and we're getting really good feedback from our early customers. 40 00:02:44,694 --> 00:02:51,192 One of the big features of the software is that there is a collaborative cloud where our customers 41 00:02:51,192 --> 00:02:52,684 can share protocols. 42 00:02:52,684 --> 00:02:56,114 So, we're starting to see protocols appear on there now. 43 00:02:56,114 --> 00:03:01,346 Our internal applications team are also developing new methods, and adding those to the cloud. 44 00:03:01,346 --> 00:03:04,896 So, in the short term, it's going to be great to see those new applications 45 00:03:04,896 --> 00:03:09,926 appearing and the ability for our customers to share those between each other, and really, you know, 46 00:03:09,926 --> 00:03:13,496 really help foster that global collaboration. 47 00:03:14,237 --> 00:03:19,726 The other thing that we are working on, and we'll be releasing early next year, 48 00:03:19,726 --> 00:03:26,816 is a firefly+ unit, which is an extension unit that goes onto the side of the existing firefly. 49 00:03:26,816 --> 00:03:32,539 So, there's an upgrade path for existing customers, and that gives them extra storage capacity for tips 50 00:03:32,539 --> 00:03:36,749 and plates, and also integrates an on-deck thermocycler. 51 00:03:36,749 --> 00:03:42,059 So, for customers who want to have a completely walkaway solution, where it goes direct 52 00:03:42,059 --> 00:03:46,438 to PCR reactions, they can do that with the new firefly+.